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In a sense, yes. "Dungeon" is merely a setting, it doesn"t require this set of rules the MMO community seems to place on it. I think it"s a great idea for future games to consider having these social dungeons in addition to instances because of the different gameplay they provide. You go...

It"s quite simple really. Very large dungeons with various points of interest, and preferably a quest hub or two within it. Look at how you would design an outdoor zone (which are going to be non-instanced anyway) and apply that to a dungeon. Few or no fixed spawn locations for random nameds...

Lmao. Lovely.

Another random design idea popped into my head today. Random positive effects are fun. Procs on weapons, proc trinkets and talents in WoW. It triggers something positive in the brain when we see it happen. In fact, it"s probably one of the things that makes MMOs so addictive when you consider...

I think normal animals should be no more than gathering nodes. Hunting as a gathering skill that produces hides/meat. Done. That being said, as long as it was used sparingly, I don"t mind animals being involved in a few quests. The plagued animals in Darkshore that you kill for example, is...

Well, no, I don"t think they should drop coin. I think they shouldn"t be what we"re killing (see previous rants). Although, it is humorous that dropping coin is too unrealistic for Blizzard but they"re fine with them dropping random greens/blues/epics if ya get lucky. Maybe the bear swallowed...

WoW has to have grey items instead of coin because half the enemies in the entire game are ANIMALS. Hoho.

I think there needs to be a limit for technical reasons if nothing else. What would happen if a character ran around with 10,000 items on him all the time? I"m not an expert on server stuff, but it seems like that would create performance issues for that player if no one else. [[Edit: As Zehn...

When I say hybrids though, I mean literally doing both roles at one time. Not just that they"re capable of doing both if they spec that way, as you see in WoW. Druid, for example would be healing and dps. I designed the class with a Seed of Life mechanic where they cast Seed spells that are...

I was looking at this from a design standpoint as well awhile back, and rather than break and remove those roles, I decided a possible solution was to makeeveryclass a hybrid. Tank/Healer/CC/DPS would be the main roles in this case, so you"d have to make CC matter in dungeons. Classes...

I dunno, I think it just depends on the type of combat environment you want to create. It can go too far (see EQ2 spamfest), or just not feel right (see LOTRO) when you try to ramp it up as you say. The reason I say WoW did an excellent job is that most classes feel very tight and there is a...

This is one thing WoW does excellently in my opinion. Classes are easy enough to pick up and play, but in the raid game (at least during TBC and WotLK) it takes a good amount of focus to really play the classes well. Particularly with the Death Knight, which is what I play now, there"s a very...

It"s just boring, Toxxulian. It doesn"t feel very heroic to kill bears and wolves. I think leatherworking / collecting hides is completely fine and a great tradeskill, but I don"t see why the animals can"t be relegated to gathering like other trades have. Like I mentioned earlier in the...

I wouldn"t want to level up another character to 60 just to do that, and I would be pissed if my main character could not get the level 60 title just because I was already 80 or beyond whenever they introduced this. It"s a good idea, but I say look at FFXI"s deleveling for certain encounters...

That would be really cool too. As subtle as it is, I think it would add a lot to the feel of the game. Makes me think of that hole beneath Icecrown Citadel you can go down into that eventually leads to a part of the Old Kingdom. How sweet would it be if that was just a seamless entry into...

As stated in my WoW thread, I"m not necessarily a fan of raising the level cap every expansion, so in this theoretical game it wouldn"t be such a problem. EQ1 cap is what, 85 after 10 years? I think that"s acceptable. Start low, level 40 or 50 cap at release, and slowly raise it as the years...

What do you guys think about the potential of Blizzard"s "Phasing" mechanic as a way to answer some of the issues with non-instanced content? I"m always arguing in favor of a game that has both instanced and non-instanced dungeons, and I was thinking phasing could be an interesting mechanic...

Completely agree on the issue of wildlife. Have "critters" as Blizzard calls them for flavor, but I"m not interested in quests involving them. You can make a hunting mini-game out of them for skinning/cooking tradeskills if you want, complete with very rare animals, but leave it at that...

This would be great. It would add a definite feeling of meaning to the quests you are doing, rather than just grinding out stuff for exp. And I agree, just going to a trainer and throwing some gold at them is kind of lame all things considered.

I"m also glad that the team seems to be realizing early on how important something like animation is. I feel games like EQ2 and Vanguard suffered greatly in part due to their poor animations. It"s surprising how much such a thing can change the actual "feel" of the overall gameplay.

Haha, that"s awesome Genjiro.

I can see what you guys are saying about the game industry being rough to work in, and particularly stressful around launch time or before a big expansion. At the same time though, I think there would be something special about it. Then again, I"m more attracted to the position of game...

Example of a 5-step group quest that would work fine with the method in discussion: Main Quest - The player must destroy Nal"kyrith, a powerful Dracoliche. Nal"kyrith has been defeated before, but the magic that binds him allows him to reconstruct himself only days after he is destroyed. It...

That"s just a sacrifice you have to make for gameplay. The only alternative is to do it like other games where people wont want to group up unless they are on the same step. I"d still make the quests story driven, and if a player chooses to complete it out of order they"re just going to have to...

This would be fantastic. On the topic of how to handle the multi-step quests as far as grouping is concerned, I see only two scenarios: 1.) Let people join at any step in the quest and adventure with you. The quest automatically goes into their log at the step the person they joined is on...

I should clarify that while I said fewer quests, I mean that in a game-wide sense. WoW truly has a ridiculous number of quests, it wouldn"t hurt to cut that global number back a bit in favor of more involved multi-step quests. Just to give an example, a quick glance at WoWHead shows me 136...

Precisely. And as long as the player is receiving XP / some reward whenever they complete a major objective, they"ll still feel that sense of accomplishment even if they don"t happen to finish the entire chain in one sitting. You still keep the benefit of WoW"s quick questing, which is allowing...

This goes back to what I was saying about making quests more heroic. If you"re thinking about this in WoW terms, yeah it would never work and it would just annoy your players when they couldn"t go round up all the quests they wanted to do at once. Like others have said, they"d want to get it...

I"m going to go with more dynamic content as well, though I disagree with Gecko"s extreme version. What he describes would never work in an MMO. I"d like to see things like the world changing based on day/night, season, and so on. Weather changing as the season does, complete with snowfall...

You can still start out with small beginnings and feel like an important character if the story is involving you and sending you on quests that actually mean something rather than just kill some bears and collect some hides. Look at characters like Frodo, who got swept up in a quest that was far...

I don"t really see how events like that would end up being any different from the AQ event, or on a smaller scale the scourge event before Naxx. Neither of those made me feel heroic personally, and I would imagine only those who got the Scarab Lord title did. It"s easier to make people feel...

Definitely agree. More than just an armory profile, I want to be able to add friends and have them see what I"m up to, what bosses I"ve downed and what gear I"ve recently looted. I want to be able to access this social networking site from my cell phone and see what my guild has planned and...

The questing/leveling experience. Make it engaging, make it fun and it will buy you time to tweak other aspects of the game while people simply enjoy leveling up. It needs to flow well and properly reward the player along the way. WoW"s leveling experience is often praised, but if you look at it...

James makes a good point there. In my former guild I was constantly having to coach the other Rogues because, while the information was readily available on EJ, they simply didn"t want to sift through the threads or bother looking for it. If you can deliver this type of information in a concise...

Check PMs, Curt.

Yeah, it"s pretty cool. Now that I"m seeing more about it, apparently it"s less to do with helping raid loot and more to do with mains having excess badges and nothing to spend them on. You can now use the badges on these items and give them to an alt. Still though, now that the capability is...

So, yeah, forever ago in this thread we were discussing problems with loot on raids, and how the job system or an "heirloom" system would be a great way for people to remain excited about running raids after they"ve already gotten what they need for their main class. Apparently, someone at...

There"s plenty of substance to this thread for those of us who are interested in the company and what it"s like to brave the waters and take on the daunting task of creating an MMO, and beyond that, a brand new IP, from scratch. There has been a great deal of information that I was able to read...

I"m not saying the people working on these games have been incompetent. I don"t necessarily agree, however, that many of them spent more time and effort on the early game than other parts. In most MMOs I"ve played, the most boring and uninspiring quests are generally always those they start you...

Eh, I think it would be doable without being forced to neglect too much. You"re already going to be designing starting areas and quests, that"s a given. You could simply make a unique area for each race, use some of the same quests and have a few tailor-made for the chosen class, make them...